North Bay pot farm presses forward after devastating fire

GLEN ELLEN, Calif. (KGO) -- The North Bay fires were devastating for homeowners and businesses. That includes some of the area's cannabis growers.

"This barn went twice as far, all the way down to that hay and then there was a whole 'nother barn over here the same size."

The Nuns Fire started in the early evening on October 8.

"I didn't wake up until 2 a.m. and I came down here and everything was on fire by that point," explained Erich Pearson.

Pearson is founder of SPARC, a cannabis company that has provided safely grown cannabis for medical patients since 1998.

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He woke up to a fire-storm.

"The home on the northwest corner of the property was on fire, the trailer on the northwest corner of the property was on fire, the entire neighborhood across the street had already burned or was on fire," said Pearson.

The fire also destroyed his cannabis farm. Millions of dollars in premium weed went up in smoke.

"So pretty much everything from this farm last year - nothing made it to the end consumer," said Pearson.

He and his workers refused to evacuate, they put out the word that they would be staying to his neighbors, taking in displaced animals while he figured out how to salvage what was left of his business.

"Just letting folks know we were here, so we did a lot of work with cats and dogs and checking on people's homes and stuff like that. We stayed quite busy for a week, I don't think we slept very much," said Pearson.

TAKE ACTION: How you can help with North Bay fire relief

SPARC operates four dispensaries in the Bay Area. Patients who use their products depend on that high quality product to relieve their pain.

Droneview7 took a look overhead, and today you can see green where the earth was scorched black.

Permits to rebuild their facility are in the works and Pearson says he's working as quickly to get back up and running. It will take time for the roots to set in, in the shadow of an unimaginable disaster.

"We're replanting everything we planted last year, so we're in rebuild mode," said Pearson.

Written and Produced by Ken Miguel

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